Since Biffo shut down operations - without even leaving a picture of a big spunking cock behind this time - I've found it increasingly difficult to get enthusiastic about anything in the blogosphere, given that Mr. B's ramblings were pretty much the only thing I read on a regular basis. I've certainly found it increasingly difficult to muster up the energy to convert my own event-free existence into a readable form.
I was under the impression that Biffo was only taking a break, but the prolonged absence of any new content (or indeed any content whatsoever - his blog merely remains as some kind of placeholder, with even the promise of previous writings appearing in some kind of archive form apparently having been shelved) would suggest that he's officially had enough with sharing his life with bunch of perfect strangers. Which is fair enough really.
Interestingly he's also jacked in his Edge column, and even his own website now only exists as an advert for his books (for now at least - apparently the publisher of Confessions of a Chatroom Freak has gone into liquidation. It seems that it's not only Biffo himself that's determined to wipe every trace of him from the Net).
I can't really blame him for wanting to go to ground. As entertaining a part of my daily routine reading his stuff was, he's under no obligation to write anything whatsoever for the edification of feckless Internet boreds like myself, and the disproportionate levels of hostility that can be generated by, for example, simply telling the truth about witnessing some games industry corporate tosspot making a tit of himself at a music event, could also be a factor in his disappearance.
Digitser was the perfect blend of gaming news and outright nonsense; a magazine in which the best thing about it was frequently the stuff that didn't even have anything to do with games. Given the games industry's propensity for long periods of relative inactivity, or simply the volume of dross it chooses to foist upon us, taking a wander down Digi's surreal B-roads could make a review of even the most boring car simulator essential reading. The current residents in that esteemed slot should take note.
When Digitiser flew off in a big Death Egg into the clouds in 2003, we thought we'd seen the end of Biffo, but thankfully he kept his 'hand' in, writing a column for Edge, and later thrilling nerds like myself by starting his popular blog, retaining his famous writing style, but unencumbered by having to rewrite hyperbolic press releases about how the new PlayStation was more powerful than a thousand suns, or something. He could make even a trip to the supermarket an entertaining tale of heartache and sexual harassment, resulting in that rarest of things - a blog that people actually want to read (and yes, I am aware of the irony).
So consider this post some kind of - admittedly fairly poxy - tribute, to a man who has entertained and informed in one form or another for significant chunk of both my gaming and non-gaming life.
To Biffo - bottoms out!
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